Chalk (1997) User Reviews

A hilarious farce

[kep315 · 26 September 2003]

I can't understand other IMDB members' criticism of this very funny show. If you like Steven Moffat's other shows, how can you fail to be amused by this? Very much in the same vein as the previous "Joking Apart" and the latter "Coupling," "Chalk" puts its characters into farcical situations from which they have to find their way out of -- and suffer a world of embarrassment while doing so.

The writing sparkles, and the acting is superb. The cast understand the meaning of the words "comic timing." And no, I did not find the performance of David Bamber, as Mr. Slatt, "over the top."

Speaking of Mr. Slatt, you've got to love that the character starts out -- to use the British vernacular -- a total w****r. But then, in the episode where Mrs. Trippley meets her online sex partner (who goes by the screen name "Meat Helmet," while the dowdy, middle-aged teacher is "Hot Bitch" C'mon, tell me that that alone isn't already making you chuckle), Slatt is actually allowed to be heroic! This is akin to having M*A*S*H*'s Frank Burns turn around and do something noble at the end of an episode. Slatt's honorable action is totally unexpected, but a nice bit of character development nonetheless.

All-in-all I'd say don't be put off by a couple of negative reviews. If you like Steven Moffat, or you like farce, watch this show! Meanwhile, I wish someone would put out a Region 1 DVD of "Chalk" so that I can see the episodes that I missed when it ran on our local PBS station, and re-watch some of my favorite episode, such as the one mentioned above.

Chalk (Series 1 & 2)

[peter-middelberg · 10/10 · 18 June 2006]

This one of the best and funniest comedy series i have ever seen! All characters are brilliant.

Mr. Slatt (David Bamber) is a very very irritated man, irritated by everything and anyone.

He wants to do things and handle situations as best as he possibly can, but he never gets it right and only gets himself deeper and deeper in trouble. Not supported by his wife Janet, who only tries to get him deeper and deeper into the trouble he is getting himself into (and really does not need the help at all!).

All characters are played/portrayed brilliantly. Just imagine sending your kid(s) to a school like this.

It is unbelievable that people do not like it (maybe some don not get the many many plays on words, that are featured many times per episode).

It is also unbelievable that there is still no DVD release of it. There are only 2 series!

So please, release it, let it go! So the fans can and will enjoy it!

Try it, you might just like it!!!

Just some names & words from the series: Pumpman, Man Helmet, Hot Bitch, Mount Suzy, Travis Fellatio, Cockfoster, Arshead (and many many more).

I am watching it currently

[werner-punz · 10/10 · 11 January 2009]

And I do not understand why the show gets so much beating. In my opinion this show really is excellent. Well the first two episodes were not that great but it picks up a load of momentum at the third episode. Which seems to be typical for a Steve Moffat sitcom. I would rate it among the best sitcoms Britain has ever produced.

The show itself is a farce at its best, it is not along the lines of Fawlty Towers, but you definitely can rank it as high as a Black Adder, Coupling, or The Young Ones! I am watching the first season, and all I can say is that I am happy I bought the DVD!

The problem probably with this show is and why it got smacked so hard, according to the internet, that the original press release compared it to Fawlty Towers, and everyone was disappointed it was not! Well even Green Wing is closer to Fawlty Towers than this show, all I can say is clear your mind from every prejudice, give the show at least a run until (including episode 3) and then decide for yourself!

All I can say is thanks Steve Moffat for writing it and thanks for the entire staff pulling it off!

Still hilarious over two decades later

[sicklittlebunny · 10/10 · 29 March 2021]

I watched this series when it was first released and it's even better now than it was then. With all the over dramatic, totally unrealistic scenarios in current comedy series some good clean silliness is a welcome break.

Having gone through the British school system the personality defects and odd behaviour of the staff is completely believable and very funny.

I just wish there was more of it. 2 series of 6 episodes is not enough, I wish I knew why it ended.

I can only assume the bad reviews are from Americans who have never met a British person, let alone been here and don't get our humour. No-one is comparing this series to the predictable American sitcoms and nobody who has seen this ever would.

I mean one reviewer actually gets on their high horse about a married man "carrying on" (which would never happen in an American show!), a veiw that can only be explained if the reviewer has only seen a 10 second dream sequence in an episode titled The Dream and not watched anything else.

This was also never touted as the new Fawlty Towers. I wouldn't have watched it if it had been.

Mr Moffat - if you're reading this - write something else.

[VLeung · 21 March 1999]

Chalk is one of the most underrated British sitcoms. I'm not pretending it's one of the best, but it deserved attention and recognition and admiration. It WAS just farce, but it was funny, well constructed, and beautifully acted. What lifted the programme above the norm, though, was the love affair, which was handled terrifically. The difference between British and American sitcoms, what makes the US ones so popular, is they're good at building on-going unconsummated love affairs into the plots - Ross and Rachel, Frasier and Niles, Caroline and Richard. They make you want to keep watching. Although the complicit insanity of David Bamber and Nicola Walker was very understated throughout the first series, it was there. In the next series, it began to come to life - this was perfect pacing, and the episode where they both draw diagrams to show how they're not compatible was nearly brilliant.

It's not as good as Press Gang, of course - nothing is (and I'm not crazy, I'm sensible and clever in real life) but it's clear that Moffat is our best hope for producing a sit com full of great lines and a romance you care about. I wish he'd write something new now. How about a return to Spike and Lynda - they must both want to do it, if it's as good as Press Gang. She could be working her way up a ghastly tabloid, or the editor of a local paper, or well, I am getting into crazy territory now. But he should do it.

Supremely funny

[SceneByScene · 27 January 2024]

In a nutshell: exquisitely funny . . .

I hadn't seen this comedy series before, nor even heard of it that I remember, when I came across it on an online player in 2023. So I watched it mainly for the cast, many of whom are still known to us. I didn't expect great things of the funny aspect; I was just intrigued as to how it played. After all, if the series was good, I would have heard of it before . . . Right? Wrong! It was a delight to find the series is far better than the passable - or the just OK, or perhaps even pretty poor - that I expected. As, boy!, when I watched it, did I enjoy it!

I cannot believe I had never heard of the series. It should have won awards for the script, the storylines, the casting, and the comedy performances. And especially David Bamber; I can't believe he didn't win an award - or several - for his brilliant performance. He never falters over both series. His timing and delivery is spot on. He leads the players without trying to drown them out.

The other cast members are also superb. Several actors are even more well-known now than then, so went on from this to even greater things. There are reliable regular performers - well known from earlier comedy series - in cameos or in key roles; and introductory roles for newer actors. All skilled in their spot. The team gels brilliantly. An exercise in perfection.

Funny, clever, but never contrived or overdone. The programme did what it should: it makes the viewer laugh. And as for the prompt end after only 2 series: at least the last episode offered a neat - and likeable - finale for the characters. The best comedies have warmth as well as pith, so that we can appreciate the characters and get to like them. The closing episode offers us this feature: it makes us warm to Bamber and see him in a different perspective than we have so far. A neat ending then.

The programme only lasted 2 series. The reasons it was cancelled stun me. There is no WAY this this TV comedy should have got such a bad pasting after series 1 that it was cancelled - which is apparently what happened. WHAT was going through the minds of the deciding personnel?!

Yes, it's a farce, which no doubt didn't fit into the trend parameters of late-1990s TV. Farce was pretty old-school and sadly out of favour by then. Shame, as I have recently seen Steven Moffat's 'Joking Apart' series, which is another farce-based humour of the 1990s and like 'Chalk' is superb. I haven't laughed so much at a comedy in years, and I wasn't pressed by fashion prejudice to belittle such a classic form of humour. So could gladly ignore the out-of-style label that 'Chalk' was no doubt handed back in 1997 when it was cancelled.

I got to laugh out loud through all 12 episodes of 'Chalk'. Ditto Moffat's 'Joking Apart' TV creation. Both comedies are well worth the time-investment. Having waited a quarter of a century to discover the two TV programmes, I am delighted some genius decided to put them online. What a gift for 2024!

Avoid

[Demona65 · 4 June 1999]

My friend watched Chalk. He saw David Bamber and said that he had nightmares. The show was that bad.

Although David Bamber didn't do it alone. The entire show was a complete failure. Saying that the fact that it had an ongoing understated and unconsummated love affair going on made it like an American sitcom is hogwash! American sitcoms would never have a married man carry on so unless his wife was insane and never actually appeared on-screen. Even if they did, the fact that David Bamber was one half of this couple makes it highly implausible. We were already asked to transcend the lines of plausible reality when we were asked to believe that any woman would marry him. To think that another female would be attracted to him is impossible to swallow.

If anyone else had been in the role of Slatt, this show might have been palatable. However, it was not to be. I conclude by saying that this show should carry a warning label- avoid at all costs!

Heavily Panned. Rightly So

[Theo Robertson · 28 July 2002]

CHALK must be the most heavily criticized sit com to have been made by the BBC during the 1990s . That`s hardly surprising since it`s one of the worst sit coms the beeb decided to make. Perhaps the reason for the critics panning was the fact that the BBC decided to tout it as the new FAWLTY TOWERS ! .Yep you read that right , mind you many of the premises of CHALK may have worked if set in a hotel in Torquay but FAWLTY TOWERS had two outstanding comedy writers in Cleese and Booth and the cast were convincing and that is the key to comedy - just like in the best sci fi you have to be totally convincing on the writing and acting fronts . CHALK fails because the acting is truly awful especially David Bamber who`s idea of comedy is gurning and acting in a totally OTT manner , and going back to some of the episodes premises , if I remember correctly one features a corpse and another involves school inspectors . Ah so that`s why they`d work in FAWLTY TOWERS , they`ve already been used in Cleeses and Booth`s masterwork.

And I did notice that other reviewers at the IMDB have decided not to make their names and locations public. Is this in case the BBC will hold a grudge against them putting the boot into their baby ? I hope not and I have praised much of the beebs work in the past , and that`s why I`m surprised they can commission rubbish like CHALK